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Image

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Rafael Ferrer

The Balata River: “In the mountains, there you feel free” (El Rio Balatá: "En las montañas te sientes libre")

Description

Maker

Rafael Ferrer (American, b. 1933)

Title

The Balata River: “In the mountains, there you feel free” (El Rio Balatá: "En las montañas te sientes libre")
In the mountains, there you feel free

Year

1988

Medium

  • Oil on canvas

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Oil on canvas

Materials

oil paint

Supports

  • canvas

Dimensions

182.9 x 244.2 x 2.9 cm (72 x 96 1/8 x 1 1/8 inches) Dimensions verified - Painting inventory project 04/14/05

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signature: Signed LR:Ferrer 88 VII; signed UL on verso:RF 1988

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Modern Latin American Art

Object Number

1989.034

Type

  • Paintings

Projects & Publications

Publications

  • Journal

Manual / Issue 8: Give and Take

  • Books

Island Nations: New Art From Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Diaspora

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Paula and Leonard Granoff Galleries
Dec 18, 2015
Island Nations
New Art from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico
Oct 29, 2004 – Jan 20, 2005

Label copy

In this painting set in the Dominican Republic, the artist presents the kind of unspoiled tropical landscape that has traditionally epitomized the Caribbean. This romanticized view is reinforced by the work’s subtitle, which reads, “In the mountains, there you feel free,” a line taken from T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land” (1922). The image seems to exorcize the tensions that exist between the region’s undeniable natural beauty and its rampant urbanization, between its sometimes hard realities and its long-standing promise of earthly paradise.

En esta pintura de un lugar de la República Dominicana, el artista nos muestra el paisaje tropical que tradicionalmente caracteriza al Caribe. Esta visión romantizada se refuerza a través del subtítulo (escrito en el reverso de la pintura): <>, tomado de las primeras líneas del poema de T.S. Eliot, La Tierra Perdida. La imagen parece exorcizar las tensiones que existen entre la belleza indudable de la región y la rampante urbanización, entre sus duras realidades y su eterna promesa de un paraíso terrestre.

Down to Earth
The Enduring Landscape
Jun 17, 1998 – Aug 30, 1998
"De Donde Vengo"
Selections from the Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Modern Latin American Art
Mar 15, 1996 – Apr 28, 1996
From the Reserve II
Twentieth-Century Painting
Jun 24, 1994 – Aug 27, 1994
  • More Exhibition History +

Use & Feedback

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This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Rafael Ferrer (American, b. 1933)
The Balata River: “In the mountains, there you feel free” (El Rio Balatá: "En las montañas te sientes libre"); In the mountains, there you feel free, 1988
Oil on canvas
182.9 x 244.2 x 2.9 cm (72 x 96 1/8 x 1 1/8 inches) Dimensions verified - Painting inventory project 04/14/05
Nancy Sayles Day Collection of Modern Latin American Art 1989.034

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Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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